Claiming

Claiming occurs when a deity acknowledges his/her demigod offspring, usually by sending a hologram of their symbol of power to appear over the particular child's head, but some claims are unique, such as Piper McLean's when her makeup, hair, and clothes are changed to enhance her beauty.

Contents

Description

Whenever gods have a child with a human, it was the gods choice to claim that child or not. This was a sign that the demigod child was a son or daughter of a certain god. At Camp Half-Blood, being claimed is considered a great honor and they use this knowledge to sort you into the cabin of your godly parent. Before the events of The Last Olympian, not every god had a cabin so a claimed child of a minor god would end up in the Hermes' Cabin.

However other demigods were never claimed, even after arriving at camp. It is unknown why, but it is mentioned that even the gods lose track of all the children they have with mortals. It is all possible that some demigods aren't claimed to keep them safe, as once a demigod learns who they are, they may begin to attract monsters that wouldn't have noticed them before. At Camp Half-Blood, any unclaimed demigod was also placed in Hermes' Cabin.

Many unclaimed demigods or demigods born from a minor god felt neglected by their parents and by Camp Half-Blood and turned away from the Olympians, eventually leading to the Second Olympian War. However, after the war was over, Percy made the gods promise to claim their children by the time they turn thirteen and build cabins for all the minor gods, in accordance with the wishes of Ethan Nakamura and Luke Castellan. From then on, Claiming became a common occurrence at Camp Half-Blood, with new campers normally being claimed at the campfire.

At Camp Jupiter, the gods don't interact with their children or legacies as much as their Greek aspects do. However, by tradition when a member of the Legion turns sixteen, they are considered a man/woman and are normally claimed on this day. Other times, the gods will send some sign or omen to their child (like in the case of Vitellius). Any unclaimed member of the Legion is placed on Probatio until they achieve some kind of great task and they are claimed by their parent.

At Hotel Valhalla, a being called a Vala would learn if new Einherjar are demigods by casting rune stones into the air and which ever symbol facing up when the stones landed, would be the symbol of the Einherji's godly parent. Though in some rare cases (such as Magnus Chase's), Norns would cast the rune stones.

When Aphrodite claims her children they start glowing with a pink aura. After that they instantly look great (beautiful). The children of Aphrodite refer to this as Aphrodite's Blessing, which goes on for a while and can sometimes even go back when Aphrodite wills it to, but may fade after a while. This happened to Piper while she was at the camp's bonfire in The Lost Hero.

Trivia

As shown in The Sea of Monsters, monsters (in this case, Cyclopes) like Tyson can also be claimed by their godly parent, even though they aren't really considered demigods.

Percy made the gods promise to claim their children by the age of thirteen. However, this means that the gods didn't have to claim any child already over the age of thirteen, as it was not part of the deal the gods made on the River Styx. This can be shown with demigods like Leo and Piper, who were both older than thirteen when the oath was made. Although Hephaestus mentioned in Leo's dream that he had to be claimed at the right moment, otherwise he probably would've been claimed earlier.

Despite claiming generally being a holographic image or a makeover in the case of children of Aphrodite, a demigod can be claimed simply by having a god appear to them and claim them as their child (like with Hazel and Frank).

In The Lightning Thief movie, Percy was not claimed by Poseidon like he was in the book. Chiron already knows he is Poseidon's son and tells him when he gets to camp.

It's possible that most demigods in ancient times weren't claimed and probably didn't know they were demigods. Most demigods in Ancient Greece lived much longer lives.

If Zeus doesn't claim one of his children, that demigod is probably safe from Hera's wrath. Hercules was probably the only son of Zeus who was claimed in ancient times.